I love news entertainment and everything social!

01/16/2012

ATHENS (Reuters) – Most Greeks are unhappy with their coalition government but continue to support its technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, an opinion poll showed Saturday.

Pressure is building on Athens to conclude a deal to cut its debt load. Government negotiations with bankers and insurers broke up without agreement Friday, although officials said more talks are likely next week.

The survey by pollster Public Issue for Sunday's Kathimerini newspaper showed that 91 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the government, up from 80 percent in an early

December poll.

The three-party coalition government was formed in November to push a bailout deal and take the overborrowed country to elections, now tentatively set for April.

Papademos's approval rating remained higher than his government's, though it dropped slightly to 55 percent from 60 percent registered in the December poll.

Also, 50 percent of respondents said they did not see a need for immediate elections.

The poll, conducted on January 5-10 on a nationwide sample of 1,018 Greeks, showed the conservative New Democracy (ND) party maintaining its lead over the PASOK socialists but unable to secure an absolute majority if elections were held today.

New Democracy would win 30.5 percent of the vote versus 14 percent for the socialists and 12.5 percent for the communist party, which is not part of the coalition government.

"The political landscape remains fluid. New Democracy leads but without outright majority," Kathimerini said.

Two Ultraheavy Elements Added to Periodic Table

A committee of international chemists and physicists has officially added two new elements to the periodic table: the ultraweighty elements 114 and 116.

They’re the heaviest members yet of the periodic table, with whopping atomic weights of 289 and 292 atomic mass units respectively. The previous heavyweight winners were copernicium (285) and roentgenium (272).

The two new elements are radioactive and only exist for less than a second before decaying into lighter atoms. Element 116 will quickly decay into 114, and 114 transforms into the slightly lighter copernicium as it sheds its alpha particles.

After the discovery of 116 in 2000, a decade of further experimentation and a three-year review process, the new elements were given official status by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics on June 1.

“Element 114″ obviously isn’t a very catchy name, especially in a sea of molybdenums and seaborgiums. They have temporary titles — ununquadium and ununhexium — but final names are yet to been decided.

The committee also heard arguments for elements 113, 115 and 118. They concluded that the results were encouraging, but don’t quite fulfill the criteria for new elements just yet. The temporarily titled ununtrium, ununpentium and ununoctium, which can weigh as much as 294 atomic mass units, will have to try again in a few years.

KABUL/WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A video showing what appears to be American forces urinating on dead Taliban fighters prompted anger in Afghanistan and promises of a U.S. investigation on Thursday but the insurgent group said it would not harm nascent efforts to broker peace talks.

The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, shows four men in camouflage Marine combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them jokes: "Have a nice day, buddy." Another makes a lewd joke.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai condemned the video, describing the men's actions as "inhuman" and calling for an investigation, in a statement on Thursday.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta telephoned Karzai to denounce the actions in the video as "deplorable" and to say it would be investigated immediately, the Pentagon said. General Martin Dempsey, the top U.S. military officer, said actions depicted in the video were illegal.

The U.S. military has identified two of the four Marines in the video so far, a Marine Corps official told Reuters, adding the Marine Corps believed the images were authentic.

But the Pentagon stopped short of offering an official confirmation that the video was real and Panetta said there was not yet a "firm conclusion" on the matter.

The video is likely to stir up already strong anti-U.S. sentiment in Afghanistan after a decade of a war that has seen other cases of abuse. That could complicate efforts to promote reconciliation as foreign troops gradually withdraw.

"Such action will leave a very, very bad impact on peace efforts," Arsala Rahmani, a senior member of the Afghan government's High Peace Council, told Reuters.

The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama, seeing a glimmer of hope after months of efforts to broker talks, is launching a fresh round of shuttle diplomacy this weekend.

Marc Grossman, Obama's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, will fly into the region for talks with Karzai and top officials in Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

One immediate goal is to seal agreement for the Taliban to open a political office in the Gulf state of Qatar.

Despite concerns when the video emerged that it would not help efforts to build confidence among the warring parties, a Taliban spokesman said although the images were shocking, the tape would not affect talks or a possible prisoner release.

"We know that our country is occupied," he said. "This is not a political process, so the video will not harm our talks and prisoner exchange because they are at the preliminary stage."

CONCERN FOR MORE PROTESTS

Panetta said he had ordered the Marine Corps and the commander of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan to investigate and said anyone found responsible will be punished.

"The danger obviously is this kind of video could be misused in many ways not only to undermine what we are trying to do in Afghanistan but undermine the potential for reconciliation. There is a danger there," Panetta told reporters on a trip to Texas.

"But I think if we move quickly - if we conduct this investigation and hold these people accountable - we send a clear signal to the world that the U.S. is not going to tolerate that kind of behavior and it doesn't represent the United States as a whole."

General James Amos, the commandant of the Marine Corps, said in a statement the video "apparently depicts Marines desecrating several dead Taliban in Afghanistan."

He said he had asked the Naval Criminal Investigative Service to examine the incident and had set up another internal inquiry headed by Marine officers.

A Marine officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that all of the Marines in question were believed to be from the 3rd Battallion, 2nd Marines, which is based in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, at the time of the incident.

That unit served in Afghanistan from March to September 2011, the official said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said he was not aware of whether President Barack Obama had seen the video.

News of the footage had yet to spread in Afghanistan - a country where a minority has access to electricity and the Internet is limited to a tiny urban elite - but Afghans who were told about what the tape appears to show were horrified.

"It may start with just video footage but it will end with demonstrations around the country and maybe the world," said 44-year-old Qaisullah, who has a shop near Kabul's Shah-e-dushamshera mosque.

Anti-American feeling has boiled over, or been whipped up, into violence several times in Afghanistan in recent years. Protests over reports of the desecration of the Muslim holy book have twice sparked deadly riots.

The tape also sparked anger across the Middle East and in Internet chatrooms, prompting reference to earlier scandals involving U.S. soldiers' treatment of prisoners in Iraq and the killing of unarmed civilians in Afghanistan.

"This is the embodiment of the strong assaulting the weak. It's nothing new for the Americans, it only adds to what they have done in Abu Ghraib prison. This a breach of the sacredness of Islam and Muslims," said Othman al-Busaifi, 45, in Tripoli.

The U.S. military has been prosecuting soldiers from the Army's 5th Stryker Brigade on charges of murdering unarmed Afghan civilians while deployed in Kandahar province in 2010 and cutting off body parts as war trophies.

"They cut off ears and fingers and keep them as medals, and urinate on bodies, then they talk about civilization," wrote user Abu Abdullah al-Janubi on one forum.

CRITICAL TIME

The video was released at a critical time for what U.S. officials hope might become authentic talks on Afghanistan's political future.

In Kabul, Grossman will seek approval from Karzai - whose support for a U.S. effort he fears will sideline his government has wavered - to move ahead with good-faith measures seen as an essential precursor to negotiations that could give the Taliban a shared role in governing Afghanistan.

The diplomatic initiative includes a possible transfer of Taliban prisoners from the U.S. military detention camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

A breakthrough would mark a milestone for the Obama administration, struggling to secure a modicum of stability in Afghanistan as it presses ahead with its gradual withdrawal from a long and costly war. The United States and its allies aim to withdraw combat troops by the end of 2014.

ATHENS (Reuters) – Most Greeks are unhappy with their coalition government but continue to support its technocrat Prime Minister Lucas Papademos, an opinion poll showed Saturday.

Pressure is building on Athens to conclude a deal to cut its debt load. Government negotiations with bankers and insurers broke up without agreement Friday, although officials said more talks are likely next week.

The survey by pollster Public Issue for Sunday's Kathimerini newspaper showed that 91 percent of respondents were dissatisfied with the government, up from 80 percent in an early

December poll.

The three-party coalition government was formed in November to push a bailout deal and take the overborrowed country to elections, now tentatively set for April.

Papademos's approval rating remained higher than his government's, though it dropped slightly to 55 percent from 60 percent registered in the December poll.

Also, 50 percent of respondents said they did not see a need for immediate elections.

The poll, conducted on January 5-10 on a nationwide sample of 1,018 Greeks, showed the conservative New Democracy (ND) party maintaining its lead over the PASOK socialists but unable to secure an absolute majority if elections were held today.

New Democracy would win 30.5 percent of the vote versus 14 percent for the socialists and 12.5 percent for the communist party, which is not part of the coalition government.

"The political landscape remains fluid. New Democracy leads but without outright majority," Kathimerini said.

WASHINGTON – Tensions rising by the day, the Obama administration said Friday it is warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf. The Navy revealed that two U.S. ships in and near the Gulf were harassed by Iranian speedboats last week.

Spokesmen were vague on what the United States would do about Iran's threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but military officials have been clear that the U.S. is readying for a possible naval clash.

That prospect is the latest flashpoint with Iran, and one of the most serious. Although it currently overshadows the threat of war over Iran's disputed nuclear program, perhaps beginning with an Israeli military strike on Iran's nuclear structure, both simmering crises raise the possibility of a shooting war this year.

"We have to make sure we are ready for any situation and have all options on the table," Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said, addressing a soldier's question Thursday about the overall risk of war with Iran.

Navy officials said that in separate incidents Jan. 6, three Iranian speedboats — each armed with a mounted gun — briefly chased after a U.S. Navy ship just outside the Gulf near the Strait of Hormuz and a U.S. Coast Guard cutter in the northern Gulf. No shots were fired and the speedboats backed off.

For several reasons, the risk of open conflict with Tehran appears higher in this election year than at any point since President Barack Obama took office with a pledge to try to bridge 30 years of enmity. A clash would represent a failure of U.S. policy on several fronts and vault now-dormant national security concerns into the presidential election contest.

The U.S. still hopes that international pressure will persuade Iran to back down on its disputed nuclear program, but the Islamic regime shows no sign it would willingly give up a project has become a point of national pride. A nuclear bomb, or the ability to quickly make one, could also be worth much more to Iran as a bargaining chip down the road.

Time is short, with Iran making several leaps toward the ability to manufacture a nuclear weapon if it chooses to do so. Iran claims its nuclear development is intended for the peaceful production of energy. Meanwhile, several longstanding assumptions about U.S. influence and the value of a targeted strike to stymie Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon have changed. For one, the White House is no longer confident it could prevail on Israel not to launch such a strike.

An escalating covert campaign of sabotage and targeted assassinations highlighted by this week's killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist may not be enough to head off a larger shooting war and could prod Iran to strike first.

The brazen killing of a young scientist by motorcycle-riding bombers is seen as almost surely the work of Israel, according to U.S. and other officials speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss intelligence matters. The killing on a Tehran street followed the deaths of several other Iranians involved in the nuclear program, a mysterious explosion at an Iranian nuclear site that may have been sabotage and the apparent targeting of the program with an efficient computer virus.

Iranian officials accuse both Israel and the U.S. of carrying out the assassination as part of a secret operation to stop Iran's nuclear program. The killing came a day after Israeli military chief Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz was quoted as telling a parliamentary panel that 2012 would be a "critical year" for Iran — in part because of "things that happen to it unnaturally."

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Panetta made a point of publicly denying any U.S. involvement, but the administration tied itself in knots this week over how far to go in condemning an action that could further the U.S. goal of stalling Iranian nuclear progress.

The U.S. position remains that a military strike on Iran's known nuclear facilities is undesirable because it would have unintended consequences and would probably only stall, not end, the Iranian nuclear drive. That has been the consensus view among military leaders and policy makers for roughly five years, spanning a Republican and Democratic administration.

But during that time Iran has gotten ever closer to a potential bomb, Israel has gotten more brazen in its threats to stop an Iranian bomb by nearly any means, and the U.S. administration's influence over Israel has declined.

Israel considers Iran its mortal enemy and takes seriously the Iranian threat to wipe the Jewish state from the map. The United States is Israel's strongest ally and international defender, but the allies differ over how imminent the Iranian threat has become and how to stop it.

The strained relationship between Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays a role, as does the rise in influence of conservative political parties in Israel. U.S. officials have concluded that Israel will go its own way on Iran, despite U.S. objections, and may not give the U.S. much notice if it decides to launch a strike, U.S. and other officials said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomacy.

The Obama administration is concerned that Iran's claim this week that it is expanding nuclear operations with more advanced equipment may push Israel closer to a strike.

Obama last month approved new sanctions against Iran that would target its central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.

A senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard force was recently quoted as saying Tehran's leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz if the country's petroleum exports are blocked due to sanctions.

Panetta linked the two crises Thursday, saying an Iranian nuclear weapon is one "red line" the U.S. will not allow Iran to cross and a closure of the strait is another.

"We must keep all capabilities ready in the event those lines are crossed," Panetta told soldiers at Fort Bliss, Texas.

He did not elaborate, but the nation's top military officer, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey, has said the U.S. would take action to reopen the strategic waterway. That could only mean military action, and there are U.S. warships stationed nearby.

"The United States and the international community have a strong interest in the free flow of commerce and freedom of navigation in all national waterways," White House press secretary Jay Carney said Friday, adding that Iran is well aware of that position. "Our views are clear, we're expressing them publicly and privately, and I'll leave it at that."

International talks to barter Iran out of building a nuclear weapon are nearly collapsed, the United States and several partners are on the verge of applying the toughest sanctions yet on Iran's lifeblood oil sector, an increasingly cornered Iranian leadership is lashing out in unpredictable ways and faces additional internal pressures with a parliamentary election approaching.

All that adds up to a new equation, U.S. and Western diplomats said. A unilateral U.S. military strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure remains unlikely but no longer unthinkable, while the likelihood of an Israeli military strike has increased.

Immediate consequences would probably include an unpredictable spike in oil prices, ripple effects in troubled European economies and a setback for the fragile U.S. economic recovery. Longer term, a strike or a full-on war would almost surely ignite anti-American sentiment in the Middle East and beyond and empower hardline political movements in newly democratic Egypt and elsewhere.

Although the Obama administration wants to avoid conflict, it is locked in a cycle of provocation and reaction that feeds Iranian fears and may make war more likely, said Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department Iran expert now at the Brookings Institution.

"The tactics the administration has been taking means conflict becomes more likely because of the potential for miscalculation and the level of tensions and frustrations on both sides," she said.

MILWAUKEE – An unusually mild winter finally gave way to the Midwest's first big snowstorm of the season Thursday, blanketing a region unfazed by a white Thanksgiving in a layer of powder and pack that forced all-too-happy snow plow drivers off their couches and into the streets.

The storm dumped several inches of snow on western parts of Wisconsin and Iowa before moving eastward into Milwaukee, St. Louis and Chicago, where up to eight inches were expected to fall by Friday morning.

In a typical year, such a storm would hardly register in the upper Midwest. But the atmospheric patterns, including the Pacific pattern known as La Nina, that have conspired to make this an unusually icy winter in Alaska have kept it abnormally warm in parts of the lower 48 states used to more snow.

For Steve Longo, a 47-year-old chiropractor from Wauwatosa, Wis., the wait to try out the cross country skis he got for Christmas was excruciating. He and friend Alex Ng, 56, wasted no time in hitting the trails at the Lapham Peak cross country ski area, about 25 miles west of Milwaukee.

"I wasn't worried," Longo said. "I was just anxious."

"This is Wisconsin," a confident Ng said. "There's going to be snow."

The storm dumped 2 to 6 inches of snow on eastern Iowa by Thursday evening, and was expected to drop 3 to 8 inches total on southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois as it moves further into the Northeast on Friday, according to Richard Castro, a National Weather Service meteorologist.

While the dry weather has been an unexpected boon to many cash-strapped communities, which have saved big by not having to pay for plowing, salting and sanding their streets, it has hurt the seasonable businesses that bank on the snow.

"If people don't see it in their yards they are not likely to come out and ski and snowboard so this is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful for us," said Kim Engel, owner of Sunburst Ski area in Kewaskum in southeastern Wisconsin, as she watched the snow come down out the window.

Rob Moser, a snow plow driver from Elkhart, Ind., said he couldn't wait for the flakes to start to fall. The weather service said lake effect snow could mean parts of Michigan and northern Indiana could get up to a foot.

"I love it. I make money plowing snow and I'm all about snowmobiling, so I love it," Moser said. "We haven't had enough snow to do much."

The storm was an annoyance for most commuters, and authorities said it caused hundreds of traffic accidents and at least three road deaths — two in Iowa and one in Missouri. And while some lucky grade-schoolers cheered an unexpected day of sledding, hundreds of would-be air travelers had to scramble to come up with a Plan B.

More than 400 flights were canceled at O'Hare International Airport on Thursday and flights that did depart were delayed 20 minutes, on average, because of deicing, the Chicago Department fo Aviation said. Across town at Midway International Airport, more than 100 flights were canceled, although Southwest Airlines said it planned to resume its flights Thursday evening.

In New York state, the storm dumped up to 8 inches of snow on the southern Adirondacks and forced scores of schools to cancel or delay the start of classes. The weather service said until Thursday's storm, Albany had received only 6.5 inches of snow this winter, which is about 10 inches less than it normally gets.

The ice and snow may have caused headaches for travelers, but 44-year-old Mike Norman, of Evanston, Ill., said it's about time. Norman co-founded Chicago Endurance Sports, which offers a Winter Warriors program to help runners stay committed to their training and teach them about the right gear for winter. But he said because of the unseasonably warm weather — temperatures exceeded 50 degrees on Wednesday — the program hasn't really geared up.

"It's one of my favorite times of year to run. It's clean. It's crisp. It's quiet," Norman said. "It's fun to put footsteps in the fresh snow."

Lisa Taylor, the director of the North American Vasa cross-country ski race near Traverse City, Mich., said the storm, which pushed into the area Thursday night, would help reinforce the thick base of snow on the rolling trails that they needed for races.

"There's been a great feeling of confidence that we'd get some good snow," Taylor said. "Up in the hilly areas where the trails are, there's already more snow than you'd think."

January 15, 2012: A general view of Radaa city, south east of Sanaa, Yemen.

SANAA, Yemen ? Al Qaeda militants seized full control of a town south of the Yemeni capital on Monday, overrunning army positions, storming the local prison and freeing its inmates, security officials said.

The capture of Radda in Bayda province, some 100 miles south of Sanaa, underscores the growing strength of Al Qaeda in Yemen as it continues to take advantage of the weakness of a central government struggling to contain nearly a year of massive political unrest.

The officials said the militants threw a security ring around Radda, preventing residents from leaving or entering, and killed two soldiers and wounded a third in clashes with army troops.

The fighters pushed into the town from several points they had captured over the weekend, including an ancient castle that overlooks the town, a school and a mosque. They freed 150-200 inmates, including an unspecified number of militants belonging to Al-Qaeda. The officials said some of the freed inmates joined the militants after they were given arms.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Monday's attack prompted stores and schools to close.

Bayda province is a key transit route between the capital and Yemen's southern provinces where the Al Qaeda militants are most active. Islamic militants have already seized control of a swath of territory and towns in Abyan province in southern Yemen.

An Associated Press photographer who visited Radda on Sunday said the militants were armed with rocket-propelled grenades, automatic rifles and other weapons. He quoted residents as saying the black Al Qaeda banner has been raised atop the mosque they captured over the weekend.

The security officials estimated the number of militants who attacked the town on Monday at around 200.

Yemen's opposition has accused embattled President Ali Abdullah Saleh of trying to torpedo a power transfer deal he signed last month by allowing security to deteriorate in the south of the country as a way of arguing that he must stay in power, which he has held since 1978.

The United States long considered Saleh a necessary ally in the fight against Yemen's active Al Qaeda branch, which has been linked to terror attacks on U.S. soil and is believed to be one of the international terror organization's most dangerous franchises. The U.S. withdrew its support last summer and said he should step down.

Islamic militants began seizing territory in Abyan province last spring, solidifying their control over the town of Jaar in April before taking the provincial capital, Zinjibar, in May.

Yemeni security forces have been trying unsuccessfully to push them out since then in fierce fighting that has caused many casualties on both sides. The conflict has forced tens of thousands of civilians from Zinjibar and the surrounding area to flee, many to the port city of Aden.

Note: Do not read on if you have not seen Season 1, Episode 9 of ABC's "Once Upon a Time," entitled "True North."

While "Once Upon a Time" is fast becoming known for its original twists on classic fairytales, the fantasy show generally erred on the side of tradition when it came to tackling Hansel and Gretel in this week's episode. Sure, the blind witch (played by "Buffy" alum Emma Caulfield) was more of a looker than we might remember, but the oven and the gingerbread house were picture perfect ... after all, why tamper with the classics?

Still, all roads lead back to The Evil Queen (henceforth known as "TEQ") in Fairytale Land, and in this week's story, she was the one who sent the twins into the sticky lair of her cannibalistic rival, all to retrieve an infamous red apple. I must admit, I love the idea of warring witches who might be friends but are more likely to be enemies, each with his/her own specific curses and powers.

As intriguing as those connections are, I'd still love to see more of Fairytale Land's geography and politics to work out how everything fits together. For example, how powerful is TEQ compared to Maleficent and the blind witch? If she's stronger, why must she send children to achieve her ends, and if she's not, why is she allowed to rule her late-husband's kingdom unchallenged? When the show began, I mistakenly thought that all of the stories would take place in the same realm, which was admittedly short-sighted of me, given how many princesses there are in the Disney canon. But now, it seems obvious that there are neighboring lands and factions at play, and probably even different time periods being explored. After all, Rumplestiltskin seems to be enough of an established antagonist for Snow White and Prince Charming that his own origin story, shown last week, potentially came years (maybe even decades?) before he was captured and locked away in the mines. The same holds true for Jiminy Cricket's backstory, since Geppetto was still a child when Jiminy traded his human form for a smaller, greener one, but an old man when Snow and Charming married.

I have no doubt that the writers and producers know exactly how everything slots together, but I do wish they could clue the audience in. It's a minor nitpick, but if an on-screen date or time-period had been established in the pilot, or if each flashback contained a reference to how long ago it happened compared to the day the curse took effect, ("Two Years Before Curse" perhaps?) I think the narrative would have more clarity. In this case, we can surmise that Hansel and Gretel's tale took place after the huntsman failed to kill Snow, and TEQ had obviously begun exploring other options to hasten her stepdaughter's demise.

The most intriguing part of this week's story was TEQ's unexpected desire for a family of her own. After Hansel and Gretel locked the blind witch in the oven, TEQ invited the twins to live with her, offering them wealth and power in an effort to make them forget about their father. But, since their father was played by "The X-Files'" Nicholas Lea, he was far too awesome to be replaced by a homicidal witch with a foreboding (and drafty-looking) castle. Hansel and Gretel found themselves abandoned in the woods once more.

I was surprised by the emotion that TEQ displayed in her conversation with the woodsman -- she seemed genuinely baffled (and hurt) that the children's love couldn't be bought, and I thought that Lana Parrilla expressed that longing for connection perfectly, with far more nuance than is generally required of her as TEQ. That being said, as wonderful as the nuance was, I did enjoy seeing TEQ teleporting and enchanting tree roots to capture Hansel and Gretel in the forest too -- she's been doing so much scheming lately that I was pleased to see her being more active again.

I'm also glad that Jennifer Morrison is settling into her rhythm as Emma as the weeks go by. I still feel like the Storybrooke characters are less compelling than their fairytale counterparts (with the exception of Mary Margaret and David) and that we're still, for the most part, only scratching the surface of their motivations and emotions. But little by little, we're learning more about Emma, and her encounter with Ava and Nicholas finally gave us more insight into her past, specifically her issues with the foster system.

We still don't know anything about Henry's father -- aside from the fact that he wasn't the hero Emma made him out to be -- and I have a sneaking suspicion that he's still alive and will come into play in a more direct way somewhere down the line. But I do think Henry could've handled the truth had she decided to trust him with it. I understand why she's trying to protect her son, especially considering all the disappointments and setbacks Henry's already encountered. But I'm sure her secrecy will only backfire later, probably due to Regina's interference.

Perhaps my favorite part of the episode came from Emma's later interactions with Mary Margaret; I was surprised that she shared Henry's theory (the truth) about Snow White -- and thus Mary Margaret -- being her mother, but knowing what we know about their real relationship -- the scene was surprisingly poignant. I was itching for Mary to have some great revelation and for her memories to come flooding back to her, but the understated moment where she picked up Emma's old baby blanket and smelled it -- beautifully written by David H. Goodman and Liz Tigelaar -- was almost as satisfying.

Though I sometimes worry that the show is treading water, spending too much time on peripheral fairytales and not enough advancing the storyline to break the curse, perhaps next week's episode, which again focuses on Snow and Charming, will help pick up the momentum. Any guesses as to the identity of the mysterious biker who just breezed into town, since strangers never come to Storybrooke? I'm leaning towards the Big Bad Wolf.

Loved ones and neighbors are anxiously waiting for news of the pair. Parishioners were led in prayers for the couple at a Catholic church in the town Sunday.

The U.S. Embassy in Rome said 120 Americans were estimated on board the Costa Concordia cruise ship, but two have not been accounted for, reports MyFoxTwinCities.com.

"Unfortunately, privacy laws prevent us from commenting on specific cases," said Rebecca Dodds, a Spokesperson for the U.S. Bureau of Consular Affairs. "However, I can confirm that we are still trying to locate two U.S. citizens who were listed on the ship's manifest. We are in touch with their families and are providing all possible assistance."

Over a dozen people remain unaccounted for after the shipwreck and six have been found dead. Search efforts to find the missing are ongoing.

Gadget Lab Podcast: iCloud, Always On and Hot New Wheels

In this week’s Gadget Lab podcast, the Gadget Lab crew talks about Apple’s iCloud, Brian Chen’s new book and some hot new wheels.

Staff writer Brian X. Chen and senior editor Dylan Tweney kick off the podcast with thoughts on Apple’s iCloud, the company’s cloud-services product expected to be announced at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6 in San Francisco.

Next, the two talk about Brian Chen’s forthcoming book, Always On. Brian dives into how the rise of the smartphone has affected society as a whole, as well as individuals, and what the next 10 years could look like for a smartphone-carrying public.

We’re also giving away three copies of Brian’s book to readers. Drop your thoughts on how your smartphone has changed or affected your life in a major way in the comments section of this post. The top three most thoughtful responses will score a copy of Always On.

Finally, Dylan shows off his sweet new ride. It’s not a mid-life crisis Porsche, though. The Hot Wheels Video Racers kit puts a tiny camera in your toy car, and lets you hook the car up to your computer for video editing later. We think it’s awesome, if a little nausea-inducing.

Mike is a Wired.com staff writer covering Google and the mobile beat. He's written on a number of different tech topics, ranging from startups to social media. Follow @mj_isaac and @GadgetLab on Twitter.